Unbranding Traditional Branding Methods

I am a sucker for the weird and the odd especially when it comes to business. What’s even more interesting is when the weird and the odd makes more sense than the norm.

That’s how I take the revelation that brands are getting smart enough (actually sneaky enough is a better term) to find ways to disassociate themselves from moronic pop culture ‘celebrities’ like Snooki from MTV’s Jersey Shore.

Here is my full disclosure. I am from NJ but not the NJ you are thinking of. My New Jersey had farms and lots of space. I didn’t live anywhere near the Turnpike (although Exit 10 would be the best one to start your trek to the part of NJ I know). I have also never watched a second of MTV’s Jersey Shore nor do I plan to.

The trouble is that this Snooki character is all over the place and apparently she is a walking cry for an intervention of some sort. As a result she has become anathema to the brands that she likes to be seen in especially the Coach bag she apparently totes around in between drinks and fights. Not exactly the kind of person you want as the spokesperson for your brand, right?

Well, if you are afraid that someone with this little moral character or common sense is what is becoming the face of your brand what can you do? Send her a competitor’s brand so she will stop using yours! Brilliant!

In what is being called ‘unbranding’ brands are looking for ways to move away from ‘popular’ people who are notorious rather than just getting notoriety. From the Observer by way of the Business Insider War Room

Remember how Snooki, drunk or sober, was never seen without that Coach bag dangling from the crook of her arm? Snooki and her Coach were as synonymous as The Situation and his six-pack.

But then the winds of change started blowing on Jersey Shore. Every photograph of Guido-huntin’ Snooki showed her toting a new designer purse. Why the sudden disloyalty? Was she trading up? Was she vomiting into her purses and then randomly replacing them?

The answer is much more intriguing.

Allegedly, the anxious folks at these various luxury houses are all aggressively gifting our gal Snookums with free bags. No surprise, right? But here’s the shocker: They are not sending her their own bags. They are sending her each other’s bags! Competitors’ bags!

So if you are finding that your product is getting some press from the wrong sources (maybe Tiger Woods is using your Day Timer for his ‘appointments’?) send along the competitor’s stuff to keep yours out of the wrong spotlight.

Ingenious? Maybe. More like a statement on the sad times we live in. Trouble is that it’s what is happening whether we like it or not. Do you like it?

Are You Marketing Towards Women?

• The most popular online activities for women this summer: 76% plan to connect with
  friends and family, 67% will keep up with the news, 64% plan to shop for sales/compare prices, 59% intend to entertain themselves (play games, listen to music or watch TV/movies), and 48% will research travel/vacations.
• Women age 18-24 are more inclined to use the Internet for most activities, and also
  more receptive to online advertising in various formats, particularly more interested than women overall in localized information, surveys, social media formats and exclusive downloadable content.
• The most popular ad content is for sales and discount codes – 46% of women notice
  these, followed by creating/submitting an entry to win a prize – 31%. About one in four women notice an ad with localized information, like area movie listings.
• Women notice ads for items they’re already interested in – 56% of women planning to
  look up entertainment options this summer have noticed an entertainment ad in the past month and 46% of women planning to research travel have noticed a travel ad.
• Women with children in the home tend to do more activities online than those without children, including listen to music (62% vs. 42%), watch TV or movies (56% vs. 46%) and look up entertainment options (60% vs. 40%).
• Women that visit blogs notice online advertising far more than overall respondents, but this is a small group with just 13% of women planning to visit a blog this summer.

WebProNews had a couple of interesting conversations about domains at the Search Marketing Expo – one with Moniker Founder and President Monte Cahn, and one with Senior Vice President, Client Services at Performics, Michael Kahn.

Do you use domains to drive traffic?

Cahn talked specifically about how your domain relates to your brand, and the importance of making sure the right one is available when coming up with a name for you brand. Products have their own brands, and this way of thinking can be applied to those in many cases. Cahn noted that even the big companies make mistakes in this area. For example, you would expect Apple to own iPad.com, but someone else has that domain.

He also talked about the importance of covering your brand in terms of domain names. This means getting all variations possible. Get typos, different extensions and country codes, etc. Use 301 redirects on misspells of key brands (including singular/plural versions). However, when it comes to domain names for different products, he says it’s best to build sub-sites around those with their own content, which can help drive link juice, SEO value, and traffic.

Kahn talked more about the fact that people are still going directly to domains through direct navigation.
“Direct nav and domaining is one of the oldest practices you can have in the Internet and web space,” he said. “I think it’s been forgotten with all that’s happening in search and social, but this is the strategy where you are going out and buying domain names that can be feeder sources of traffic into your main site or because of consumer use of those domains and then typing those into the browser box, you can set up content, and use those to drive consumer engagement with your brand through other means besides your own primary URL.”

“Someone could build out a hundred domains driving towards their main domain, in many instances you might do a 301 redirect, if it’s a small domain, with not a lot of traffic,” he said. “With the bigger ones, let’s say you’re in the insurance category, and you’re Allstate Insurance Company, and you end up with freeinsurancequotes.com as a domain you want to have, you’re probably going to want to build out content on that, optimize that for both paid search and SEO, and use it as a traffic driver that also ends up with traffic back for Allstate.”

The video of the discussion with Kahn had a couple of good comments:

“Simplifying the name in the domain will help people remember your brand is a positive thing.”

“Generic domain names especially command a huge amount of traffic, both directly in type-in traffic and indirectly in the huge SEO benefit an exact term matching generic domain grants for the search term.”

It’s a good idea for businesses to keep in mind that domains should be easy to remember, not too long, easy to spell, relevant to the brand, and avoid complicating characters such as hyphens. Though there are exceptions, simplicity is key.

Related Blogs